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After the governments surprise announcement of a snap election of 8 th June 2017, a number of our customers have asked me how this is likely to impact the housing market. It is fair to say that historically, a general election has usually signalled a decline in property sales, just before the election, only for this to return to normal figures shortly after the dust has settled. However, given that general elections since 1980 have nearly always fallen in May or June, looking at the seasonally adjusted figures since 2005, it would suggest this is nothing more than an annual trend in the housing market.   Source: HMRC The main highlights from the graph above are: ·          The number of property sales drop from their peak of 150,000 per month at the end of 2007 (coinciding with the credit crunch/recession). ·          A peak in December 2010 coinciding with the end of the Stamp ...

You may remember when we reviewed the Governments housing white paper back in February, that the Government was going to review some of the current practices around reselling freeholds and excessive ground rent review clauses. We also commented about this again in March in our blog about leaseholds generally, and noted that you should be extremely cautious if looking to purchase a house (rather than an apartment) that was leasehold rather than freehold. Housing spokesman John Healey said his party would end this "sharp practice" where properties are sold with a leasehold, and then the freehold is sold resulting in sharp increases in ground rent payable by the leaseholder. The Scale of the Problem Recently released figures show that nearly 4 million homeowners in England do not own their freehold (which is 21% of the housing stock), with 30% of these being houses rather than apartments. This would mean there are now in the region of 1.2 million houses in Englan...

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I have been asked by a number of customers recently about the proposed changes coming to the cost of probate, so I wanted to give you an update and highlight a potential tax pitfall. What are the changes? Currently there is a flat fee of £215 on all estates worth over £50,000.   What the Government is proposing to do, is link the fee to the size of estate, rather than charging a fixed fee to the actual work being carried out. This will work on a sliding scale, with the highest fee being £20,000 … an increase of 9,202%!   The decision comes despite only 13 of the 831 respondents in a consultation issued by the Ministry of Justice actually agreeing with the plans - a mere 1.6 per cent. Most of those who replied to the consultation were legal experts and firms of solicitors. The move will mean estates under £50,000 are exempt from charges. However, rampant house price inflation since 1997, which has seen the average property value reach £206,000, according to ...